Series / Wicked Science

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Wicked Science is an Australian television series, which debuted on July 2, 2004. The series focuses on Toby Johnson (played by André de Vanny) and Elizabeth Hawke (played by Bridget Neval), two teenagers who are accidentally turned into wizards of science by a freak-accident in a school laboratory. The series was originally run on Network Ten from 2004 to 2006, after which it then moved to Disney Channel. Wicked Science has also screened on ABC 1 and ABC 2.This show provides examples of:

And the Adventure Continues: Unlike the first series, the second series ends with both Toby and Elizabeth still having their abilities. The final scene has Russ accidentally turn a Koala into a 50 foot monster which destroys Toby's roof with everyone simply laughing and about to spring into action to deal with it.

Art Major Biology: An episode had Toby trying to find an ancestor for Russ to be proud of, eventually having to go back to the Paleolithic, of course, at that point said person would be the ancestor to all modern Europeans and white Australians, Russ would have no special connection with them in any way. Paleolithic Europe also looked suspiciously like Australia...

Baleful Polymorph: An episode features Garth's little cousin accidentally having his DNA be progressively hybridised with that of a spider, leading to him being able to spit webbing and behave more like a spider before being reversed. Russ and Sacha are turned into flies by a ray set up by Elizabeth. Elizabeth also later uses a similar device to painfully transform Toby progressively into a more and more frog-like creature in an attempt to cause him to act more bizarrely and make a poor first impression on his girlfriends parents. (Yes, that is how insane this show can get, even with the high bar that Aussie kids TV shows are at.)

Big Eater: Russ, an episode even features him in an eating contest, except Sacha's mind is in his body.

The Bully: Garth King. His favourite punchbag is Russ, Toby's best friend. Garth acts as Elizabeth's henchman in most episodes.

Country Cousin: Toby's cousin Sacha Johnson lives with Toby and his father as she comes from the country to attend school in the city.

Disproportionate Retribution: Elizabeth, so many times. In one episode Dina runs against her as class president and Elizabeth splashes paint on her, tries to get her fired, and nearly kills her. In another episode Sasha gets a higher grade than Elizabeth and Elizabeth responds by making all of Sasha's teeth to fall out.

Entitled to Have You: After they both become geniuses Elizabeth more than once invokes this as a reason why Toby could only ever be truly happy with her.

"Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Happens to Russ when he accidentally becomes a genius for an episode. Happens to Verity when she gets a ring that enhances the wearers confidence. Even happens to Elizabeth when a cold virus somehow compels her to use her powers to do nice things for everyone before nearly killing her.

Freak Lab Accident: Toby and Elizabeth initially get their powers this way thanks to a frog stepping on a keyboard.

Hologram: Elizabeth creates a hologram of Dina to frame her for vandalizing a car.

Hot Scientist: Elizabeth's outer beauty is mentioned on the show in order to contrast it with her lack of inner beauty.

Human Popsicle: Happens to Elizabeth when Toby decides to flash freeze her in order to kill a virus that threatens her life. A version also happens to Mr Woods when he gets trapped in a crystal structure, for some reason.

Intangibility: Elizabeth develops a means of making matter capable of passing through other solid matter given the application of enough force by making it's inter-atomic bonds slacker. However, it leaves the object changed prone to eventual disintegration and she requires Toby's help to find Jack and save his arm after he accidentally exposes himself. In a later episode she uses a spray to give a similar temporary effect as part of an elaborate ghost prank.

Invisibility: An early episode has Toby develop an invisibility paint to hide the damaged car of their teacher. Elizabeth later develops her own invisibility paint, but it apparently adheres best to skin and hair. Leading her to become an Invisible Streaker in order to spy on and ruin Toby's date with Nikki. Unfortunately for her, as with Toby's paint, it was water soluble...

Involuntary Shapeshifting: An episode involves Verity accidentally becoming a part plant hybrid and occasionally undergoing a physical transformation into a swamp monster before transforming back, keeping it a secret and leading her to terrorise the local community.

I Just Want to Be Normal: Toby. While he loses his science genius at the end of the first season, he gets it back at the beginning of the second season (Though Toby himself admits that he missed being superhuman smart, never again complains about his powers and makes no attempt to remove them from himself or Elizabeth despite knowing how).

Kiss of Life: Subverted when Russ reluctantly tries this on an unconcious Elizabeth only for her to wake up just in time and immediately punch him in the face.

Latex Perfection: Toby constructs a special choker which allows Dina to wear Elizabeth's face and voice. This plan however, fails to mention that Dina is substantially shorter and heftier than Elizabeth and would thus make a strange impersonation.

Lightning Gun: Elizabeth builds a device capable of generating controllable bolts of lightning, including steerable ball lightning, all to coerce Toby to take her to a dance by threatening to use it on his preferred date if he doesn't.

Put on a Bus: Dina Demiris is mentioned very briefly in the first episode of the second season. She is said to be travelling with her family across Asia for a year and is never mentioned again. "How cool is that, taking the year off to travel the world. *Beat* Tell me more about Sacha"

Reset Button: At the end of every episode, everything soon goes back to normal.

Save the Villain: Toby has had to help Elizabeth more than once when her experiments gave herunexpected results. Elizabeth returns the favour on occasion. Elizabeth even pretends this is happening, once to spend time alone with Toby and once to lure Toby into a trap.

Speaks Fluent Animal: Sacha briefly obtains the power to understand and communicate with animals, (Even skin mites) after a device Elizbeth uses to surpress Toby's hyperfunctioning hits her and inexplicably gives her this power.

The End... Or Is It?: The last scene of the first series reveals that Elizabeth still has the settings for the MFE ('Genius code') to turn herself back into a genius and ends with a close-up of her giving a Kubrick Stare before turning to give our unaware heroes (and Verity) a long Psychotic Smirk.

Viewers Are Goldfish: The Opening Narration to every episode: "Hi! I'm Toby. I'm just a regular student. Well, I was before I got zapped, now I'm some kind of science genius! The only problem is, Elizabeth is, too!"

Weather Manipulation: An episode has Elizabeth build a high-powered microwave emitter which can cause intense rain clouds and high winds. She later also builds a machine to control lightning.

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